Kelly McCarthy comments on problems caused by fraudulent trademark filings at the USPTO for the World Trademark Review

February 2019

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued an alert over solicitation emails from parties wishing to use the name and address of US attorneys when filing trademarks at the office. However, such a move may not be enough, with a legal expert calling on the USPTO to add security to its filing system, warning that failure to act could see third parties fraudulently using attorney names when applying for trademarks…

Kelly P McCarthy, partner at Sideman & Bancroft, received the solicitation email and states: “As an attorney who frequently works with clients to navigate the US trademark register and assess risk levels for proceeding with new applications, registrations which are clearly fraudulent require trademark owners to use resources that they could be saving for other matters. Entities like this one, who appear to be clearing looking for ways to undermine the integrity of the USPTO’s systems, are really problematic…”